New Delhi [India], August 3 : Former Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer revealed KL Rahul's anger with team performances during his stint with former Indian Premier League (IPL) team Punjab Kings (PBKS), saying that losing matches from winning positions and by close margins made the batter "deeply frustrated".
Rahul, who represented PBKS from 2018-2021, served as the team's captain from 2018-21. During this time, Jaffer served as PBKS head coach from 2019-21. KL's 2020 and 2021 seasons with the team were highly productive, winning the Orange Cap in the 2020 season with 670 runs in 14 innings at an average of 55.83 and a strike rate of 129.34, with a century and five fifties. However, in both his seasons as a captain, PBKS finished in sixth spot out of eight teams.
Speaking on The Great Indian Cricket Show on Doordarshan, Jaffer shared behind-the-scenes insights from his coaching stint with the franchise. Reflecting on KL Rahul's ultra-calm demeanour as a leader, Jaffer revealed how the batter's usually composed exterior once gave way to intense frustration during Punjab's notoriously tight IPL finishes.
He said, "KL is naturally very composed, a bit reserved, and keeps to himself. You would not see him out and about much, as he mostly socialises within his close circle of friends. It is very rare to see him lose his cool or get visibly angry on or off the field."
Jaffer then went on to recall his side's close losses during KL's captaincy, which frustrated the opening batter and while he did not say "anything out of line", he was still "a little angry".
"But back when I was the batting coach at Punjab, every single game felt like a heartbreak. We were losing matches from winning positions, and almost every game was dragging down to the final over. After one of those close losses, a game we easily should have won, I saw him get genuinely angry for the first time. He didn't say anything out of line, but you could see how deeply frustrated he was with how badly we had played. That was the only time I saw KL Rahul a little angry," he added.
In the 2020 season, PBKS lost one match to Delhi Capitals (their campaign opener) in the Super Over and registered a two-run loss to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Abu Dhabi while chasing 165 runs. These two defeats were extremely hard for PBKS as far as points table maths was concerned. PBKS finished the tournament with six wins, eight losses and 12 points and the fourth and final playoff spot went to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), who had 14 points. Sealing those two wins could have sent PBKS in the playoffs.
In the next season as well, KL-led PBKS suffered narrow losses to Rajasthan Royals (RR) by two runs and to RCB by six runs, which once again left them narrowly short of the playoffs. PBKS finished that season with 12 points, with KKR (14 points) getting the final playoff spot. KL scored 626 runs in 13 innings, with six fifties in that season.
PBKS faced a change in fortunes under Shreyas Iyer's captaincy, finishing runners-up in the 2025 season to RCB, while in the last season, they narrowly missed out on the playoffs despite being unbeaten in their first seven matches, losing their next six matches in a row.
KL is PBKS' leading run-getter, with 2,548 runs in 55 matches at an average of 56.62 and a strike rate of almost 140, with two centuries and 23 fifties in 55 innings. From 2022-24, the batter represented Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), scoring 1,410 runs in 38 innings at an average of 41.47 and a strike rate of 130.67, with two centuries and 10 fifties and leading them to the playoffs twice as a captain.
Since 2025, his T20I batting has had a resurgance as a part of the Delhi Capitals (DC) set-up, scoring 1,132 runs in 27 matches and innings at an average of 49.21 and a strike rate of over 161, with two centuries and eight fifties. In this season, KL was at his explosive best, scoring 593 runs in 14 innings at an average of 45.61, with a strike rate of 174.41, including a century and five fifties, with his best score of 152* being the first-ever score of 150-plus runs by an Indian in the IPL and third-overall.